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10/26/15

Capture Your Grief, Day 25: Earth Remembrance

January 29, 2015 | Afternoon Walk | Cabo San Juan, Mexico

Day 25: Earth Remembrance

On our back porch I have two hanging planters that fall at different lengths from the extended roof, a little secret about them is that though they used to nest real plants they now are home to an assortment of very real looking artificial succulents, elephant ferns, and cacti. They evidently are nice enough to have fooled many people including my mother, or maybe it's that no one actually considers to look close enough because only a crazy person would keep fake plants outside. I kill everything. My mom is an amazing gardener, but her green thumb is not something I inherited. Every year around spring I convince myself things have changed and go out and purchase an unlucky assortment of plants and bring them home to their imminent deaths. This year I even killed a cactus, which my friends, takes some incredible skill. Today we were challenged to plant something in memory of our littles as a way of honoring and remembering them. I've always been a very sentimental person who appreciates metaphors and symbolism and how they can evoke deep emotion from us at the hand of otherwise arbitrary variables. And even so, this last year has further increased my awareness of the smaller things - for better or for worse. Though I'd like to keep the tone of this post a little lighter, there is a very unavoidable reality that planting something that would inevitably die, and at my hand no less, wasn't something I could even consider doing. I do think a plant is a nice way to honor a loved one who's passed on, a child who left too soon, or a pregnancy that ended too quickly, I also believe there are so many other ways I can honor my littles in this life. This challenge has made me think so much of Isaiah 40:8 where it says "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." We can grow plants, erect buildings, engrave benches, and hang plaques to remember those who have passed on, but the fact is this all will fade away. Everything we've lost, everything we have, everything that has and that will be is but a vapor in this world. The beauty within this truth is that the promises we've been given in scripture aren't threatened by time, circumstances, or poor gardeners like me. They are ours, friends, and they are ours forever.